Re: Shader License

The only shader that might not be completely covered by our blanket GPL3 licence is the water shader as that was based on some other work. It says where it came from at the top of the file.

There are a couple of ways you could approach this situation.

Firstly, the LGPL is generally pretty good at bridging between GPL and non-GPL code, so you might find that if you include OpenMW's shaders with an explicit GPL header, no licences are violated. I know this can be done in the opposite direction, so I'd check with someone more knowledgeable than me, but it's possible that this is fine.

Alternatively, you could just not use OpenMW's shaders. Everything in them is either fairly standard or fairly Morrowind-specific. If you want to learn to implement a specific effect, OpenGL's official tutorials are generally pretty good.

Re: Shader License

Posted: 13 Jul 2018, 14:28

by AnyOldName3

The specular function is just boring old Phong reflection, which has been standard since the 70s and is so ubiquitous that it's part of OpenGL's fixed-function pipeline. It's only not used in really recent games which use something based on real life, like Cook-Torrance instead, so there's no reason to treat it as something you took from OpenMW. If you're particularly concerned, just copy it from Wikipedia instead.

The Fresnel stuff is a little less common, but there are still a zillion tutorials on it, so you'll be able to find something else to base it off which is compatible with an LGPL licence.

Re: Shader License

Unless otherwise indicated, all OpenMW code is covered under the GPLv3.

I assume that shaders is covered under code as well. As for assets, such as icons/images... I'm not so sure. Can they be covered under the GPLv3? Should they be governed by a CC-BY license? We'll need to track down those who made them and ask. Maybe also state that if you contribute to the project, that it has to be under either GPLv3, CC0 or CC-BY license.

Re: Shader License

Posted: 13 Jul 2018, 15:11

by AnyOldName3

Images can be covered by the GPL, but it's not necessarily the best licence to put those things under.

Re: Shader License

Unless otherwise indicated, all OpenMW code is covered under the GPLv3.

I assume that shaders is covered under code as well.

I agree. My understanding is that, so long as the repository has always had a license indicating that it is GPLv3, then any contributions to it have always been GPLv3. Since we're talking about stuff beyond just "Code", I assume we ought to have the FAQ instead say:

Unless otherwise indicated, all OpenMW code, assets, and other project contributions are covered under the GPLv3.

Maybe also state that if you contribute to the project, that it has to be under either GPLv3, CC0 or CC-BY license.

Do we even want to open up the door to other licenses? What benefit do we gain by doing so? Are we concerned that people won't be contributing if it's under GPLv3? And is there any downside to the existing images being licensed as GPLv3?

Re: Shader License

Posted: 14 Jul 2018, 00:04

by AnyOldName3

Anything with a more permissive licence can be sublicensed as GPL3 when it's added to our repo. Anything with a less permissive licence isn't allowed in our repo in the first place.